So here I am, currently attached to general medicine department. My group which consists of four members altogether is responsible to attend to two wards - ward 8 and ward 9 in HRPZ II. There are about 30 beds altogether and each of us gets about 7-8 beds to take care of. Yesterday was our first day in medicinal posting and my very first patient passed away at noon. I somehow felt sad although I haven't gotten to know that patient very well because we were busy with orientation. It didn't feel like a good start, but Allah knows best.

As I entered ward 8, someone called out, "EH! Z! Ei! Kau buat ape kat sini?!", and I freaked out and splurted, "WAKLU!". It turned out that my senior, Ese (who's apparently known as Dr Nazrul there lol), is the houseman in charge of that ward. "Habislah aku, semua perangai burukku tak dapat dibendung sebab depa dah tahu dah perangai betul aku. This is a really really bad way to start my day", I said to myself. It turned out that he helped us a lot and oh how different the way docs in general medicine deal with patients, especially when it comes to doing physical examination, so even a little guide is invaluable to us. See, there's somehow prejudice towards USM dental students in HRPZ II and even HUSM itself. The most common snide remarks we usually receive are, "Apa kaitan benda ni dengan awak? Awak kena tahu gigi je kan. Nanti kerja pun pandang mulut patient je", "Saya tak fahamlah, benda ni bukannya awak pakai. Tak payah tahulah", and a quite a number more. But what YOU have to understand too are how our curriculum goes (80% of our total year 1 professional examination marks come from medicine and 70% during professional 2. I'm not sure about final professional though haha), we're going to graduate with a doctor of dental SURGERY certificate, and examiners expect our medical knowledge to be almost equivalent to an actual medical student. So just suck on it, because your snide remarks won't change a thing. But oh well, hardship is meant to teach us lessons and we think we're okay with it now :) Therefore, we extremely appreciate any help we can get. Alhamdulillah, specialists usually understand us well (also thanks to Dean for explaining our situation to them in the first place) and despite those remarks, the docs usually teach us a lot anyway. Thank you :) One day, insya Allah, if the quality of health industry in Malaysia improves, we may advance with a more dynamic approach to any part of it and at that time, this medical knowledge we have shall be put to use more for good, amin. So in the meantime, dear dental students of USM, just bear, do your best, and have faith in this system.

Today, I accompanied my patient during her peritoneal dialysis. It was my first time witnessing such procedure although we have learned a lot about it (but there is much more to learn). My patient grasped my hand and groaned in pain throughout the procedure, especially during the intraperitoneal infusion of dialysate. It was heartbreaking but there are more good to it than its opposite. And when she released my hand and looked at me with a thankful look in her eyes (although I didn't do much to help her, only moral support), a principle that had been dying slowly after eid mubarak hols was strengthened. Allah teaches us in amazing ways. As usual I fall in love with every single posting, but I don't think I want to dub myself 'Jack of All Trade Master of None' anymore. Let's improve ourselves in as many aspects as we can. Insya Allah.